Cinco de Mayo Weekend

Every year, we host a Cinco de Mayo family party at our house. We don't have it on May 5th unless it falls on a Saturday. We always have it the weekend before or after. This year, our party was scheduled for Saturday, May 9th and we spent a very busy week preparing everything for the party so that we would not have to scramble on the day of the party...and so we could try to get in a little saling early in the day.

While dusting Friday night, we discovered that the second of our latest container of Mexican Jumping Beans had hatched. You can see him in the upper right hand corner. Chicharito II had hatched over the winter. They only live for a few days as an adult and they don't eat as an adult. We let him go downstairs in our house to spend his remaining days. Our newest hatchling was lucky. We were able to let Ricardo Montalban fly away outside. Another Mexican Jumping Bean had hatched. That seemed like a good sign on the night before our Cinco de Mayo party.

Saturday morning arrived and our sights were set on saling...at least for a little while. The party was due to start at 4pm but we only needed about an hour to put on the finishing touches. There were not a lot of sales from which to choose. It was Mother's Day weekend and many of the estate sale companies took the weekend off. It was not a popular weekend for garage sales either. There was one sale described as "60 years of accumulation" but it was an hour away and there were no pictures and no more detailed decription. On a day when our time was limited, we ruled it out. Instead, we chose four sales that were pretty close to home even if they didn't seem all that promising. With hope in our hearts, off we went!

Our first stop of the day was the second day of a sale run by an estate sale company that we had only recently discovered. "Vintage Christmas" was listed in the description and that was a good enough reason to check it out. Once inside, it was clear that this was a home ravaged by Hurricane Sandy a few years ago. There wasn't much here but we did get two old plastic Santas for $1. 

Our second stop was at a family run estate sale. We had no idea what we would find as the ad was very nondescript. It was fairly close so we gave this one a shot. It was a backyard garage sale with plenty of things but nothing at all for us.

Our third stop was also an "estate garage sale" and was on its second day. In the pictures, we saw two tiki mugs and two old Christmas reindeer. When we arrived, the tiki mugs were gone but the reindeer were still there. $1 later, they were ours.

On the way to the third sale, we passed an outdoor sale at a library and decided to stop on the way back. We did not find any interesting books but we did find a great, old double picture frame and, for $1, it belonged to us.

We decided to skip the last sale on our list. It did not look promising, it was midday and we figured that we might just have enough time for a quick one hour nap before finishing our party preparations. We were right and we did! 

Before moving on to our party, here are the things we found saling:

This old double picture frame with its original store display pictures...MGM stars Tony Martin and Susan Hayward! 

Two old red reindeer and two old plastic Santas

It was a modest day of saling but we had fun and our Cinco de Mayo party was just ahead! 

We tried to put fun Cinco de Mayo things about the house...like this dream pet donkey...

...maracas, a ceramic donkey and a noisemaker which an appropriate picture...

...mariachi ducks!

We put Mexican themed records in a tension pole record holder...

...and in this one too! Our favorite is el Bingo! 

Our kitchen chef was in the spirit of the occasion...

...as was Tony The Tiger...

...and our bathroom duck.

Monica made these pull string pinatas for the kids and filled them with candy and small toys.

The food was plentiful (and delicious)...

...and the appropriate table accessories were in place!

Of course, we also had some sangria! 

It was a great party with lots of smiles! No more stress now that the party was a success. 

On Sunday, we packed our Cinco de Mayo party accessories and put them away until next year and then spent the remainder of the day relaxing together...and that time spent together is important to us too! 

May Arrives

May has finally arrived and the weather has been great. April was slightly warmer than the normal April and, on two occasions, the mercury topped out at 75 degrees. We have had just the right amount of rain to keep the flowers interested in growing while not dampening our spirits. In short, it has been a great start to springtime! The first weekend of may looked to keep April's weather trend and we were looking forward to a beautiful weekend which would start with, of course, saling! 

A week long's search of the ads produced a list of five potential stops. Three were in a cluster about 20 minutes from home. The other two were about an hour from home. We decided to start with the local ones and see how things went. With a game plan in mind and hope in our hearts, off we went! 

Sale #1 was a privately run estate sale described as having "60 years" of stuff. It was in Rob's childhood hometown so he knew exactly where this was. 

There was a basement and a main floor to search. The basement was our first target and we found this pencil sharpener mounted to a table downstairs. That's always a good sign! The basement had lots of boxes to search and search we did! There were hundreds of records and many boxes!

The main floor was not as packed as the basement but it did have this great starburst lamp! The price was right and it came home with us. We also brought home a few records and a couple of Christmas things.

Sale #2 was a few minutes away and was described as a vintage garage sale. We were greatly disappointed when we pulled up. We were here last year too. There were plenty of vintage things but all were at dealer prices because this was a dealer sale. We left with nothing.

Sale #3 was listed as a multi-family garage yard sale with vintage items. Actually, it was three separate yard sales on the same small street. We found a vintage Christmas tray. Although that might not seem like much, it felt good to go to a few outdoor garage sales and we enjoyed the stop.

After a bite to eat, it was time to move onto the second leg of our journey. There were two stops left and they were 45 minutes away. It was still early so, without hesitation, we went.

When we pulled up to the house, we were greeted by familiar faces. J.P. (in the truck) owns a furniture business in Brooklyn and we see him at least twice a month at sales. He usually gets there before us and he always tells us where the vintage Christmas things are. Ron (outside of the truck) is the owner of one of our favorite estate sale companies. He was helping out at this sale. He also tells us where the vintage Christmas things are at his sales. They know. They all know. 

After exchanging pleasantries, it was time to go inside. The sale was run by a tag sale company that has sales once or twice a month and we have been to some of their sales. The pictures in the ad showed a starburst light fixture like the one we found earlier in the day, only bigger. It also showed some old metal cabinets and a downstairs bar. We wondered what else might be here! 

This great metal cabinet was in the basement. It was a little rusty and, in our opinion, not as nice as the one we already have but it would be a good find for someone.

The downstairs bar was great. We loved the bar stools!

There were lots of great mounted cabinets too!

This little cabinet was also pretty great.

There was a very Brady light fixture in one of the upstairs bedrooms. This was not the light fixture that we wanted to see. That starburst light fixture was long gone by the time we arrived. We would have liked to see it but we already got one earlier in the day (plus, we have a smaller one that belonged to Monica's parents in the 1960's).

Look at the great oven built into the wall!

The house was great to stroll through but there was nothing bought here. That was okay...we still had one more stop.

Our last and final sale should have been six minutes from the previous sale but the GPS kept sending us to the wrong location and it took us 25 minutes to get here. When we got there, we found that it was being run by a tag sale company that rarely has sales but we have met them before. The garage and backyard was our first stop and, immediately, we found a few things that we liked and the price was dirt cheap! 

There was a pencil sharpener mounted in the basement. That was a good sign! 

The basement had an amazing floor. Look at those musical notes!

More musical notes! 

The basement had a great bar too! 

We are glad we got past the navigational issues. By the time we left, we had some Christmas things, some records, a great football doll, two bar bottle opener guys and some more things!

Here is what we brought home with us:

Some records

Some Christmas records

A souvenir book from the circus. From 1937.

Two old bottle opener bar figures and an old Holy Cross football doll.

Some old Santa wall hangings...six of them.

An old Merry Christmas banner

An old plastic Santa, an old Christmas tray, a mistletoe pixie and a light up Santa pin. 

We had a great Saturday and we spent Saturday night at the carnival a town away. It got chilly at night, as it does this time of year, so we did not go on any rides but we had a great time just taking in the atmosphere and, most of all, just spending the night together. 

We spent Sunday doing a million things at home. We completely cleaned the garden and we have our annual Cinco de Mayo party planned for next Saturday and there is always a lot of work involved with that. We were happy with our productivity and celebrated by going out to dinner at the local Red Robin (we only have two on Long Island). Whether our time is spent relaxing, adventuring or working hard at home, it is time spent together and nothing could ever be more precious than spending our time with the one we love. We remember that every moment.

An Early Start For The Sake Of Art

This post is for the weekend of April 25th and 26th. We are getting closer to being caught up. Wish us luck! 

Our saling adventures, typically, begin on Saturdays. We both work Monday through Friday and time does not allow for weekday saling unless we have a vacation day. This week, we had an early start. Well...Rob did. 

Early Friday morning, Monica discovered a sale on Friday that seemed too good to be true. We didn't see it earlier. Rob never checks the sales for any days that we are working. Monica does but she didn't see this one before Friday morning. Rob sent the link to Rob at work around 6:15 am.

It was one of those sales that had no business just being on a Friday. It was too good. The pictures showed a time capsule home that was frozen in time. Monica's focus was on the bullet planter in one of the pictures. Rob's eyes could not look away from the wall art in the living room. Of course, there was lots of great furniture in the house, too, but it didn't matter. It was Friday. We were working. We wouldn't be there...or would we? 

The sale began at 10 am. Rob texted Monica at 8 am. He was taking a long, early lunch. He would be there. It was 25 minutes from work. He would represent us. 

Rob arrived at the sale ten minutes before its opening only to find a line with sixteen people in front of him...on a Friday! The sale was run by a tag sale company who we have encountered before. They don't run too many sales but they have had some good ones and they are very nice. At 10 am, the door opened and they decided to let everyone in at once. This was a good thing. Rob would have as good a chance as anyone else to get some good stuff. He quickly moved from room to room and found the art work. He laid claim to it immediately. 

There were several rooms to search on the main floor and a very large basement. The basement was pretty empty and a thorough search of that floor took only five minutes. By the time that he emerged from the basement, the ladies running the tag sale asked if Rob was definitely taking the wall art. In just five minutes, three other people expressed an interest. There would be no chance to negotiate on the asking price. So...it came home to our house. The bullet planter was grabbed by someone else but a set of salt and pepper shakers and one Santa made its way into Rob's hands and the tag sale company through those in for free. 

Our wall art...Peter Pepper originals from 1956. The piece on the right (with the clock) is called "The Matrix". The company started reproducing this piece in 2013 for its 60th anniversary (with some changes). Its companion piece, on the left, has never been reintroduced. 

This 1950's Gund chime Santa and the whale salt and pepper shakers also came home to us from that sale. They are all marked Japan.

Saturday morning arrived and we had compiled a list of six potential sales; none of which looked like a sure thing. We always remain optimistic, though, and even if we found nothing at all, it would be a better saling day than the previous day simply because we were spending the day together. With hope in our hearts, off we went! 

Our first stop was at a sale labeled "Grandma's cleaning out". It was the sale that was closest to our house and, although it was its second day, we felt it was worth a trip. When we got there, we found it to be a garage sale being run by the family; one of whose members was a dealer herself. The prices were not cheap and there was not much there of interest anyway. We did manage to come home with one monkey pod for $1.

Sale #2 was run bgy a tag sale company that only runs a few sales during the year but we look forward to them. They are usually good and the people involved are nice. This sale was described as having the "contents of an older home". That sounded pretty good to us.

The kitchen, by far, was the highlight of the house. Look at these amazing metal cabinets! 

They were in amazing shape! 

The counter top was boomerang

Here's a closer look at that boomerang...amazing! 

The basement had this great, old refrigerator

This stop was a fairly quick one. Aside from the kitchen, there was not a lot to look at even though there were three floors. We went home with an old metal kitchen rack, a cookbook, some vintage gloves for Monica and one old matchbook from Manufacturer's Hanover (where Rob's mom used to work)

Sale #3 was a low key estate sale which did not seem to be have much advertising support. It didn't list much either but it was in the same neighborhood as the previous sale and hey...you never know. We arrived to find out that it was run by the family of the decedent and that there really wasn't a lot of things that interested us. We did find one record and a spare Ice Bird snow cone maker. You always need a backup! 

Sale #4 was run by a tag sale company that we have never met before. They have had several sales the last few years but none that appealed to us, at least not by description. This sale had a picture of an old stereo cabinet and its description told of a house that could have some old things. After searching two floors, the only old thing we found was that stereo cabinet. We walked away empty-handed.

At this point, we decided to pass on the final two stops on our list. They were a distance away and did not show any great promise. We were pretty close to Monica's old house and we decided to visit her dad for a few hours. It was a fun day and a fun afternoon even if we didn't get a lot of things.

Here are our finds for Saturday:

One record

One cookbook

An old metal kitchen rack, an Ice Bird, a monkey pod (marked Hawaii), a pair of vintage gloves for Monica and an old matchbook

Sunday was spent running errands and doing a lot of chores around the house. We were happy with what we accomplished. We did some find time to relax on Sunday evening and reflect back on the moments spent together...the moments that define our life and our adventures amongst the ducks.